THE PRESIDENT can help to set the national agenda, former minister of state Avril Doyle said as she became the fourth senior Fine Gael member to seek the party’s nomination for Áras an Uachtaráin.
Ms Doyle’s formal declaration was quickly followed by a lengthy statement from another contender, Fine Gael MEP for Ireland East Maireád McGuinness, setting out her own views of the president’s role.
Independent hopeful Mary Davis, meanwhile, visited Stormont for a meeting with Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to discuss the role of the presidency in promoting all-island co-operation. “My own experience in organising Special Olympics on an island-wide basis was a positive and practical example of how we are much more effective working together,” Ms Davis said.
Irish-American publisher and presidential aspirant Niall O’Dowd met Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald. Mr Adams said afterwards the party would decide next month “whether to put up a Sinn Féin candidate or support a candidate from outside the party”.
Ms Doyle told The Irish Times she had originally intended to support John Bruton for the Fine Gael nomination and only agreed to go forward when it became clear the former taoiseach was not standing.
Her rivals are former European Parliament president Pat Cox and MEPs Maireád McGuinness and Gay Mitchell. The candidate will be chosen at a special convention of TDs, Senators, councillors and members of the party executive in Dublin on July 9th.
“It will be a tough battle to persuade colleagues between the four of us, because I think each one of us brings an excellent basket of talent and experience to the table,” Ms Doyle said. “I have nothing – not a word – to say adversely about any of the other candidates. I could stand and make a case for each of them.
“My job will be to make my case and to persuade people that it is a better and stronger case and a more winning formula than any of the other three, but they are excellent candidates.”
First elected to the Dáil in 1982, she was a minister of state in two Fine Gael-Labour governments. She was a member of the European Parliament for 10 years from 1999. In 2009, she quit European politics: “I didn’t retire, I just decided not to let my name go forward again for another five-year period based in Brussels, for family reasons.” She recalled that, as MEP, “I was the author in the European Parliament of the EU’s key legislation on climate change and it is being used as a template by all the other regions in the world today that are considering going that road.”
Setting out her view of the position, she said: “The president can help to set the national agenda, while fully respecting the Constitution.”
